Clinic today was kind of lame. JL and I shadowed a GI doctor who had spent some time in the US, so he knew english. We missed out on watching him do endoscopies by 10 minutes! what a bummer. At least he was interesting to talk to. We learned that patients are quite hesitant to get endoscopies because they believe that it takes a part of them and that they will die. JL and I were kind of puzzled by that logic, so the doctor explained that many patients, especially the ones that come from the outskirts of the city (and those who are very poor) often wait until it is too late before they come in to get an endoscopy, and a couple of months later, they end up passing away due to their existing illness. But since they don't understand what is going on biologically, they believe that they die because of endoscopies. We watched the doctor recommend endoscopies to help diagnose conditions such as possible cancers or other diseases, but patient after patient refused the procedure. I know that such medical misconceptions are quite common in underserved and poor communities, and hope that one day, as part of my medical missions, I could help address and correct these misconceptions so that people could would not be afraid to get the treatment they need as this is quite disconcerting.
The GI doc finished his shift at 9:30am, so JL and I waited outside in the hallway of the ultrasound room for Rocky and PJ as they was where they were supposed to be. We got a little board and went up to the rooftop and took some cityscape pictures of Trujillo.... in our scrubs =) It was appalling to me that the rooftop did not have at least a mid level balcony or gate/fence to keep people from falling off the roof or committing suicide. something like this would never fly in the US of A
Look at the [lack of] balcony....so scary.
This pic is more appropriate for a billboard more than anything, lol
We finished our clinic time quite early (11:50am) and our taxi driver, Eddy, was unable to pick us up until 12:30pm, so PJ suggested that we go check out Templo de arco iris, also known as Huaca del Dragón. I prefer to call it by the latter, the dragon place =). Read more about it here: (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huaca_del_Dragón). Sorry it's in Spanish I'm too lazy to find it in English
We told Rocky we were headed there, and he tried to scare us by telling us that there is a lot of murderers in the area... what a meanie -_- we went anyways and made it back safe! Mission accomplished!
JL and I requested so many pictures that PJ finally said "you know what, why don't I just keep the camera and you girls just let me know when you want a pic" Thank you so much for helping us take pics as well as taking us there since you have already visited the place before PJ! JL and I didn't have out student IDs, but PJ was able to get us the student price of S/5 (~<$2US) vs. S/10. This ticket is also good for 3 other places for 2 days, including Chan chan, which we plan to head to tomorrow. Why can't admission tickets to places in the US be so cheap? so unfair!
Beautiful designs
Apparently they used to throw people into these pits, don't ask. I don't know any more than that nor do I want to know....
more people throwing pits....
PJ tried, but failed to push me into one, hence I am here writing this post
For dinner tonight, we went with other students from our program to El Sombrero to try Cuy, otherwise known as GUINEA PIG. It was extremely delicious, and the texture of meat most closely resembles duck. I almost didn't try it because, during our taxi ride over to the restaurant, PJ said that they left the head on the plate. That kind of grossed me out a bit, but then I realize, I am very used to animal heads left on the dish back at home, including fish, chicken, duck, pig.... you name it. I am very glad I tried it. It was "expensive" in Peruvian terms S/28, but for US, not so much as it costs slightly around ~11 US.
Silly story during dinner: CH, a student in the program from the UK told us that people were planning to hang out for July 4th, I proceeded to tell her we weren't going to be in Peru anymore... opps =)
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